six for six

City of Lost Souls 漂流街

Takashi Miike 2000

Starts off with a shoot out somewhere in Brazil during a dust storm, then switches to a bus of immigrants in the Japanese (not American) desert. A Chinese girl on the bus named Kei (played by the Macanese Michelle Reis), is saved from deportation by her Japanese Brazilian boyfriend, Mario, who blazes in, jumping out of a hijacked helicopter. Mario is the very same guy who was kicking arse in the shoot up in Brazil. Kei and Mario have their adventures reported to us by a Tokyo based Brazilian TV channel, as they become mixed up in a coke deal with various Japanese Chinese and Brazilian gangsters.

Eventually the couple make it to Okinawa, from where they plan to escape to somewhere-or-other by boat. Unfortunately Mario's ex-girlfriend, Brazilian hooker Lucia (played by Mexican actress Patricia Manterola, she's fucking smoking), kills Mario with a shotgun. Lucia is pissed as Mario didn't help when her blind adopted daughter was kidnapped by yakuza because of something to do with the coke deal? Never mind the plot, here's the trailer.



Snack Bar Budapest

Tinto Brass 1988

With consistent one and two star ratings it's fair to say this a very bad yet entertaining film. I usually dislike kitschy B-grade movies, particularly of the horror variety (which this is not), but this second-rate worn-out titillation fest is right up my alley. The director of Caligula teams up with Italian star Giancarlo Giannini to bring you a tale of a washed up lawyer who collects debts for a adolescent gangster. Naked women of varying degrees of beauty and youth, pad out the scenery of a Italian seaside town in winter. Budapest is only the name of the hotel, run by a man who married a Hungarian, where most of the film's violence takes place. An acquired taste, I will endeavor to upload some of it to youtube.


Once Upon A Time In The West

Sergio Leone 1969

Echos of other famous westerns like Shane and High Noon, wide desolate landscapes and cliched yet unique main characters, all of whom move to their own theme music in Operatic fashion. And what theme music! the score was composed by Enrico Moronconi.

Charles Bronson plays Harmonica, the ultimate strong silent hero; Henry Fonda is Frank the ultimate villain. Leone was given a blank cheque to make this one after the success of the Spaghetti Western Trilogy - "The Good The Bad and the Ugly", A "Fistful of Dollars", and "A Few Dollars" more with Clint Eastwood. Once Upon A Time In The West flopped at the box office - being long and a little slow for some - but is now seen by many as the best western ever made.

Favourite Line:

People like that have something inside, something to do with death.




One Night In Mongkok 旺角黑夜

Dereck Yee 2004

The movie starts with a cartoonish car chase, which has you thinking this is going to be crap. However, after the car chase and subsequent death resulting in a gang-land feud, the movie takes a turn for the better. We follow the fortunes of mainland Chinese hit man Laifu (Daniel Wu) and side-kick mainland prostitute Dandan (Cecelia Cheung) around Hong Kong's teaming Mongkok.

After many ins and outs, Laifu is gunned down leaving Dandan with the cash he had been given for the hit. After getting through customs from HK to the mainland with an expired visa, Dandan decides she will change her life for the better. This final scene is bit like the movie as a whole, one of the best Hong Kong movies I've seen, it veers between fake glamor and gritty reality: Dandan drags a calico checkered bag which is the badge of a poor mainland traveler, but her clothes - the same ones she had on before getting the money are far too fashionable. Although the film points out Mongkok is the most crowded place in the world - the border from HK to the mainland seems oddly quiet - usually it's a chaotic hell.

Favourite Line:

我决定重新做人，再也不过以前的日子
I've decided to start afresh, and not go back to my old ways




Clockers

Spike Lee 1995

Of the many movies about the problems of young Afro-American males living in the projects, this is quite possibly the best. Opens with cops looking over just another murder victim - joking as they go, completely insensitive to something they see every other day: young black men shooting other young black men over drugs. I can have a bit much of Harvey Keital, but he is excellent here as Detective Rocco Kline.

Favourite Line:

I'm from the lost black tribe of Israel The Yos.




Patton

Franklin J. Schaffner 1970

George C. Scott as General Patton. Greatest biographical Hollywood movie I've seen, and one of the best WW2 movies as well.

Favourite Lines:

It's over there. Turn right, damn it.

It was here.

The battlefield was here.

The Carthaginians
defending the city. . .

. . .were attacked by three
Roman legions.

They were brave, but they
couldn't hold. They were massacred.

Arab women. . .

. . .stripped them of their tunics
and their swords and lances.

The soldiers lay naked in the sun. . .

. . . years ago.

I was here.

You don't believe me.

You know what the poet said:

'Through the travail of ages

It's the pomp and toils of war

Have I fought and strove and perished

Countless times upon the star

As if through a glass and darkly

The age-old strife I see

Where I fought in many guises
Many names

But always me.'

You know who the poet was?

Me.